TAVISTOCK Community Football Club's U13s enjoyed a trip across the Channel, at the invitation of Pontivy Twinning Association, to take part in France's largest U13s football tournaments.

The annual tournament, the 'Tournoi Internation Guerledan' which attracted 128 teams, took place in Pontivy in Brittany, on June 2 and 3.

The team were greeted in Tavistock's twin by Mickael le Botlan from Pontivy's twinning association before going onto a civic reception, attended by all the non-French teams including Polish, Ukranian and English. The boys made friends with the Ukranian team in particular before being taken to meet their host families who looked after the team extremely well.

A league competition was played on the Saturday, the results leading to seeded knock out competitions on the Sunday.

On the first day Tavistock took a while to adjust to the 9 a-side format and the heat, managing only one win and a draw out of their seven games.

The next day the Tavistock team played some great football, narrowly failing to qualify for the final games after topping their group with two wins and a draw, but then losing 1-0 in the knock out stages.

The eventual winners were Stade Rennais U13s, a team Tavistock had beaten on the first day.

Mike Cotter the TCFC U13 manager said: 'The trip provided the boys with a great experience; they stayed with host families and for most of them it was the first time they had been away without their parents.

'Pontivy made us feel so welcome putting on a number of events for us to attend and providing an excellent escort, Mickael Le Botlan, to ensure that we had a brilliant time. The whole team enjoyed a full French cultural experience and we were made to feel like guests of honour.'

He thanked Devon County Council for providing funding for the travel through its locality fund and in particular Cllr Philip Saunders and added that 'it would be great to return the compliment and invite a Pontivy team over to Tavistock next year.'